> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://praison.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Load Metadata • AI Agent SDK

> load_metadata: Load skill metadata only (Level 1).

# load\_metadata

Method

> This is a method of the [**SkillLoader**](https://praison.ai/docs/sdk/reference/praisonaiagents/classes/SkillLoader.md) class in the [**loader**](https://praison.ai/docs/sdk/reference/praisonaiagents/modules/loader.md) module.

Load skill metadata only (Level 1).

This is the minimal load for system prompt injection.
Only reads the YAML frontmatter, not the full SKILL.md body.

## Signature

```python theme={"theme":{"light":"vitesse-light","dark":"vitesse-dark"}}
def load_metadata(skill_path: str) -> Optional[LoadedSkill]
```

## Parameters

**skill\_path** `str` *required*

Path to skill directory

### Returns

**Returns** `Optional[LoadedSkill]`

LoadedSkill with metadata only, or None if invalid

## Uses

* `resolve`
* `expanduser`
* `Path`
* `path.exists`
* `path.is_dir`
* `read_properties`
* `LoadedSkill`

## Used By

* [`SkillLoader.load`](../functions/SkillLoader-load)
* [`SkillManager.add_skill`](../functions/SkillManager-add_skill)

## Source

> [card] [View on GitHub](https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/blob/main/src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/skills/loader.py#L69)
>
> `praisonaiagents/skills/loader.py` at line 69


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